5 Speed Reads: Couple Remodels Home to Look Like 'Up' House

Breaking News Emails

Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

April 28, 2014, 4:55 PM GMT

1. Couple Remodels Home to Look Like the House From ‘Up’

Who wouldn’t want to live in a house that looks like it sprang from their favorite cartoon? Quite a few, it turns out. A couple in Santa Clara, Calif., renovated their old Victorian home to resemble the house from the movie “Up,” and the neighborhood is “up in arms” about it. The homeowners say they were simply trying to make their daughters happy, but residents on the historic street say the brightly-colored homage to the Pixar hit doesn’t fit in with the rest of the neighborhood. Although the adults may be fed up, we have a feeling their kids aren’t complaining.

2. Soccer Star Dani Alves Has the Perfect Response to Racist Taunt

Sadly, racist taunts and European soccer too often go hand-in-hand. But Brazilian-born soccer player Dani Alves had the perfect answer to a fan’s ill-willed attempt to throw him off his game this past weekend. Just before the Barcelona star’s corner kick, a fan threw a banana at him. Without missing a beat, Alves picked it up, peeled it, took a bite and kicked the ball. After the game Alves told The Guardian, “It’s been happening for 11 years, we can’t change it, so best treat it as a joke. If we give it no importance, they fail.” Well played, Mr. Alves.

3. Which Is More Effective: Typed or Handwritten Notes?

Next time you’re in class, don’t bother dragging your laptop with you, just bring your trusty paper and pen. A new study monitoring digital note takers vs. handwritten note takers showed that those who use paper and pen learn better, across the board. Surprisingly, it has nothing to do with the distractions that come with a computer -- the study controlled for outside activity. Instead, the study found that laptop users tend to transcribe lectures, which has little or no benefit to the student. Those taking notes in longhand tend to be far more selective about what they write down. Hence, the brain ends up doing more work. Like we said, keep the laptops at home.

4. Most Popular Boy’s Names on the Planet

What’s in a name? Well, according to Vox, oftentimes one’s name reflects his or her ethnicity, culture or religion. A map showing the most popular boys’ names around world shows the prevalence of “Mohammed” in countries where Islam is the major religion and “John Paul” in the Philippines, where Catholicism has deep roots. We are happy to report that “Brooklyn” and “Blue Ivy” are not yet on the map, proving that most parents look a little deeper than celebrity influence, when it comes to choosing the names of their offspring.

Singer Paul Simon is back in the news again, but this time it has nothing to do with his music. Just weeks after the Grammy-winner was honored at an all-star Carnegie Hall tribute concert, police arrested Simon, 72, and his wife Edie Brickell, 47, after investigating a “family dispute” on Saturday night. The couple, who live in New Canaan, Conn., married in 1992 and have three children together. Simon and Brickell appeared in Norwalk Superior Court on Monday afternoon where Simon told the judge that the couple are "fine together." He added, "We're going to go back home, we're going to watch our son play baseball."